Addressing the elephant in the room

The truth about a nuclear button, both Kim and Trump are stretching the truth about their buttons

The New Year started with a bang. North Korean leader Kim Jong midget needed some attention so he put out a statement saying the nuclear button is on his desk and he is ready to use it, or something to that effect. President Trump never to be intimidated said he has a nuclear button also and his is much bigger and it works. The truth is neither one of them actually has a nuclear button more than likely. For certain President Trump does not have a nuclear button right on his desk.

The image of a tyrannical leader sitting at his desk with his fingers inches from a big red button is really nothing but a scare tactic.

William Safire, the former New York Times columnist and presidential speechwriter, tracked the origin of the phrase “finger on the button” to panic buttons found in World War II-era bombers. A pilot could ring a bell to signal that other crew members should jump from the plane because it had been damaged extensively. But the buttons were often triggered prematurely or unnecessarily by jittery pilots.

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Many Presidents and Presidential candidate have made claims about the infamous nuclear button, all knowing there was no actual button.

President Lyndon B. Johnson told Barry M. Goldwater, his Republican opponent in 1964, that a leader must “do anything that is honorable to avoid pulling that trigger, mashing that button that will blow up the world.”

Richard M. Nixon told advisers during the Vietnam War that he wanted the North Vietnamese to believe he was an unpredictable “madman” who could not be restrained “when he’s angry, and he has his hand on the nuclear button.”

During the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton said of her opponent, “Trump shouldn’t have his finger on the button, or his hands on our economy.”

On this day in 1984, President Ronald Reagan makes a joking but controversial off-the-cuff remark about bombing Russia while testing a microphone before a scheduled radio address. While warming up for the speech, Reagan said “My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.”

What President Trump does have is the nuclear football which is more of a nuclear briefcase .To authorize an attack President Trump does not need congressional approval. He must first verify his identity. To launch a nuclear attack there is a set of codes that the President must have with him at all times.

The code, often described as a card, is nicknamed “the biscuit.”

In his 2010 autobiography, Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the final years of Bill Clinton’s presidency, wrote that Mr. Clinton had lost the biscuit for several months without informing anyone.Clinton probably misplaced the codes while getting a Lewinsky in the excitement and all.

No one knows for sure what the short and fat midget has to do to launch his nukes. It is almost certain he does not have a big button on his desk. And the threat that he can send the nukes at a moments notice is also a big hoax.

“It’s not a mere threat but a reality that I have a nuclear button on the desk in my office,” Mr. Kim said in a speech on Monday. “All of the mainland United States is within the range of our nuclear strike.”

The midget’s longest range missiles are believed to be powered by rocket fuel.

That means the missiles cannot be stored and ready-to-fire at a moment’s notice. They must be loaded with fuel before launch, a process than can take hours.

Newer, shorter-range missiles, are loaded with solid fuel, however, making them easier to launch before the North’s enemies detect an attack.